Mailing piece



R.K.STONE MAILING PIECE Aug. 23, 1966 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Oct. 6,1964 FIG FIG

Aug. 23, 1966 R. K` STONE 3263,153

MAILING PIECE Filed Oct. 6, 1964 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 FIG.5

United States Patent O 3,268,153 MAILING PIECE v Ralph K. Stone,Longmeadow. Mass., assignor to United States Envelope Company,Springfield, Mass., a corporation of Maine Filed Oct. 6, 1964, Ser. No.401,797 1 Claim. (Cl. 229-68) This invention relates generally to acomposite s'heet which is adapted for subsequent forming into a m a1hngpiece such as an envelope. More particularly, this invention vrelates toa composite fsheet which may be used to form, in whole or in part, thepage of a magazine, catalogue or the like, and which may be easilydetached therefrom and subsequently formed into an envelope or packagefor sending through the mail.

This invention has particular application in the promotion of specialoffers 'by mail order businesses. The composite sheet may convenientlybe printed with terms and instructions for accepting an offer, and thenplaced in a 'magazine or other booklet by joining it to a page by aweakened line such as a line of perforations. Acceptance of the otfer bythe customer lmay be made by removing the sheet, forming it into anenvelope, and remitting coins, boxtops, a r-oll `of film, etc. to theofferor.

Devices of the prior art show generally a magazine page having aperforated line dividing the page into a permanently bound-in portion,and a portion which may be separated and formed into an envelope. Theportion which may be separated is normally provided with adhesive forsecuring the sides of the envelope. There has been found to be aninherent disadvantage in the use of the -old style device however,because the adhesive areas provided for forming the envelope tend tohave suficient residual tackiness to pick up particles of foreign mattersuch as dust,"ink, grease, etc., to result in producing a detrimentaleffect on the adhesive, thereby preventing adequate seam strength of theresultant envelope. Such detrimental `effect is particularly prominentin cases where the sheet is bound in a magazine. The adhesive must .beapplied to the sheet before it is bound in the magazine. In thecollating and binding Operations, the sheet is subjected to variouskinds of foreign matter, and to a substantial amount of fricti'on with'other sheets, causing grinding-in of the foreign matter. In addition,the sheet is in face to face contact with the adjacent page in themagazine, which is normally printed and contains a certain amount offree paper and ink dust which 'rubs into the adhesive.

Also, in the use of such sheets for forming an envelope, another problemhas heretofore been encountered. It is generally desirable to pre-wrapthe articles to be mailed. For example, if coins are placed in theenvelope without being pre-wrapped, they are likely to be joltedconsiderably during 'mail handling, possibly enough to separate theseams of the envelope, or even rupture the body of the envel-ope. It is,of course, highly desirable to restrain movement of small, heavyobject-s which may tend to rupture the envelope. It sometimes does notoccur to the user that it is necessary to pre-wrap the articles to be-mailed before enclosing them in the envelope. If it does occur thatpre-wrapping is necessary, suitable pre-wrapper material 'must belocated from another source and cut to size.

The present invention provides means for overcoming the aforementionedproblems by providing a composite sheet comprising a first layer ofSheet material, such a's opaque, envelope-like material having marginalareas coated with suitable adhesive for use in forming this layer into aclosed envelope, and a second layer of sheet material superimposed onthe first layer. The laye-rs are held together by means of the adhesiveareas, and the second 3268,153 Patentecl August 23, 1966 layer ispre-ferably of a lightweight and transparent material such as plasticfilm.

The second layer serves a dual purpose. First, it acts as a protective'shield for the first layer and the adhesive areas. The adhesive areasare protected from foreign matter right up to the time the layers areseparated and formed into an envelope. Second, the second layerconveniently provides the necessary pre-wrapping material for that whichis to be contained in the envelope during mailing. The second layer,provided with a suitable release coating, may -be easily :separated fromthe opaque layer by peeling it away along the adhesive areas, leavingthe adhesive on the first layer` In the drawings:

FIGURE 1 is a plan view of a composite sheet illustrating one form of myinvention.

FIGURE 2 is a plan view of a modified form of my invention.

FIGURE 3 is a plan view of a composite sheet similar to that shown inFIGURE 2, but having a flap permitting it to be folded and used as acircular.

FIGURE 4 is a section view along line 4-4 of FIG- URE 2.

FIGURE 5 is a perspective view of a composite sheet similar to thatshown in FIGURE 1, showing the layers partially separated.

FIGURE 6 is a perspective view of an envelope or package made from theSheet according to this invention contaning articles to be sent throughthe mail.

FIGURE 7 is a section view taken -along line 7-7 of FIGURE 6.

Referrin'g to the drawings, 10 denotes generally a composite sheetaccording to my invention which may subseqnently be used for packagingarticles to be sen-t through the mail. The sheet 10 is prefcra'blydivided into two substantially equal size panels 12 and 14 by the scoreline 16. The illustrated embodiment of the'invention comprises a layerof envelope material 1'8 which may be paper o-r the like, and a layer 20of prefer'a'b-ly lightweight and transparent material which may bepaper, plastic, or the like. The layers 18 and 20 are held together 'bythe adhesive material 22. The layer of material 20 is provided with asuitable release coatng 24, such as Syl-Otf a silicone coatin'gmanufactured by the Dow Corning Corporation.

The adhesive material 22 is preferab'ly a pressure sensi- -tive orself-sealing type adhesive, in which nemoistenng is no't required torestore the tack'iness of the adhesive. Where such adhesive is used, itmay be applied by common adhesive-applying mechanisms used on envelopemaking machines or the like, and swbsequently, the layer of material 20may be superimp'osed over the layer 18. The layers are held together bythe gu-m 22, as the release coating 24 permits easy "peeling of thelayer 20 from the layer 18, leaving substantially all of the gum layeron the layer 18.

FIGUR'E 2 ill-ustrates an embodimen-t of the invention in which theadhesive 22 is only applied to one of the panels of the sheet 10. Inthis instance, the adhesive 22 may conveniently be `of theremoistenab'le type, and the layer o'f m-aterial 20 may be combined withthe layer 1.8 before the adhesive 22 has completely dried. Thus, thelayer 20 will be firm-ly connected lto the layer 18, but may also bereadily '*peeled away due to the release eoating 24.

FIGURES 1 and 2 illustrate an embodiment of the invention in which thecomposite sheet is a portion of a page of a magazine or booklet. Thecomposite sheet portion 10 may be connected to the bound page portion 26'by a weakened line 28, such as perforations or a score line.

In FIGURE 3, it is illustrated a manner in which this invention mayapply to a circular, or flier. Here, the body porti'on of the compositesheet m-ay be in either t-he form illustrated in FIGURES 1 or 2, but oneend of the layer 18 is provided with an extension 30 so that thecomposite sheet may be closed for mailing or distribution in otherm-anners. The extension 30 may =be connected to the layer 18 by aweakened line 3'2, and contain an area of -gum 34, so that upon foldingthe sheet along the line 16, 'the extension 30 may be adhesivelyconnected to the back of the folded panel 14 to hold the sheet folded.Upon receipt by the user, the adhesive connection between the extension30 and the panel 12 may be ru-ptured, and the extension separated fromthe layer 18 along the weakened line 312.

FIGURE 5 illustrates the layers 18 and 20 of the composite sheet beingsep'arated, the layer 20 subscquently t'o be used as an inner wrapperfor the articles to be mailed. The composite sheet illustrated in FIG-UR'E 5 is similar to that shown in FIGURE 1, i.e., the ,adhesive extendsaround the entire periphery of the layer '18, and the layer 20 iscoex'tensive- With the layer 18. As the layer 20 is peeled back from thelayer 18 as shown in FIG'URE 5, the areas of adhesive are exposed. Thisadhe-sive, since it has been protected by the layer 20, has not beensubjected to the detri-ment'al effect of foreign matter and friction.

FIGU'RE 6 illustr'ates the package fo-rmed from a composite sheetaccording to my invention, contaning coins or the like. Upon separat'ionof the layer 20 from the layer 18, the coins, or other articles, arefirst wrapped with the layer 20. The layer 18 is then folded along thescore line indicated at 1-6 so 'that the panels 12 and 14 aresuperimposed upon each other. The adhesive coated boundary portionsare-then pressed together if pressure sensitive adhesive is used, or ifmoistena'ble adhesive is used, it must, of course, be moistened beforethe boundary port-ions are pressed together. FIGURE 7 shows a sectionview taken through the closed package, indicating the manner in whichthe coins are contained in .the envelope, or package.

It will be understood that various changes in the details, materials,steps and arrangements of parts, which have been herein described andillustrated in order to explain the nature of the invention, may be madeby those skilled in the art within the principle and scope of theinvention as expressed in the appended claim.

I claim:

A page for a booklet .or the like having as a part thereof adetachabile, substantially rectangular message sheet adapted forsubseque-nt forming into a mailing wrap'per, said message Sheetcom'prising (a) 'a layer of opaque envelope material detachab'lyconnected to said page having a fold line defining two substantiallyequal panels and a strip of pressure Sensitive adhesive which is readilyadherent to said envelope material ex- 'tending around the free sideedges of only one of said panels (b) a layer of thin, transparent, filmoverlying the por- 'tion of said layer of opaque envelope materialhaving the strip of pressure sensitive adhesive, said film having arelease coating,

said film being substantially coex-tensive with said panel having thestripof pressure Sensitive adhesive and being held in juxtap'osition tosaid panel entirely by said strip of adhesive,

(c) 'whereby said message sheet has characteristics of a singlethickness sheet, and said film can be peeled away le'aving said adhesiveon said layer of envelope material.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,1l68,9\20 8/1939 Wissm-an 229- 2,894,675 7/ 1959 Stein. 3,159,329 12/ 1964Hiersteiner 229-68 JOSEPH R. LEOLAIR, Primary Examiner. D. M. BOCKENEK,Assistant Examiner.

